"IS" — how important is this for the IS exam?

Coming back to this thread because I just passed my IS yesterday. Everything people said about the practice test section is spot on — that was the hardest part for me too. For anyone still studying, don't skip the applied questions in the is communication & interpersonal skills. They're the closest to what you'll actually see.

Appreciate everyone sharing their experience here. I'm 6 weeks out from my IS exam date and feeling more confident after reading this. The consensus on exam prep being the hardest section matches what I'm seeing in my practice scores — going to put extra time there this week.

The advice about understanding why wrong answers are wrong — not just memorizing right ones — is genuinely the best IS advice in this thread. Rebuilt my prep around that and it made a real difference.

Failed my first attempt and IS was a big reason why. I'd memorized the surface stuff but the exam kept hitting me with scenario questions where I had to actually apply it, not just define it. So yeah, it's heavy. Don't let the practice tests fool you into thinking recall is enough.

Second time around I changed how I studied it completely. Instead of just redoing tests, I'd stop after every IS question and ask myself why the right answer was right and why the others were traps. Took longer but it stuck. I also stopped guessing and started reading the full question, because a lot of them word it in a way that trips you up if you skim. Passed comfortably the second go. If it shows up that often in your practice tests, trust that signal and go deep on it now.

Failed my first attempt and honestly I think I underprepared on this exact thing. IS shows up way more than I expected, so yeah, treat it as high weight. What I did differently the second time was stop just memorizing definitions and actually drill the scenario style questions, because the real exam loves to wrap IS concepts in situations where you have to pick the best response, not just recall a term. That tripped me up the first round hard.

The thing that helped me most was grinding question sets until the patterns clicked, this free inbound sales crm data driven insights set in particular got me thinking the way the test wants. Don't just chase a passing score on practice tests. Make sure you can explain why the right answer is right. I passed comfortably the second time and IS was a big chunk of it, so the time you put in there isn't wasted.